Air France-KLM and Lufthansa submit final bids for TAP

Wednesday, 30 September 2026AI summary

🏠 Property 🏛️ Government #property-market #government-policy #expat-rights

Air France-KLM and Lufthansa submit final bids for TAP — Photo: ECO

Air France-KLM and Lufthansa have submitted their final, improved proposals to Parpública for the acquisition of a 44.9% stake in the national airline, TAP. The state holding company will now evaluate the bids and submit a report to the government, which expects to select a new shareholder by mid-October. Both groups have emphasized their long-term commitment to Portugal, with Air France-KLM highlighting Lisbon as a key hub for Southern Europe.

Context & Explainers

Parpública is a state-owned holding company (Parpública - Participações Públicas, SGPS, S.A.) that manages the Portuguese government's equity interests in various companies. It acts as the state's vehicle for handling privatization processes, such as the ongoing sale of a stake in the national airline, TAP Air Portugal.

TAP Air Portugal is Portugal’s flag-carrier airline, founded on 14 March 1945 as Transportes Aéreos Portugueses. It began operations in 1946 with Lisbon–Madrid and quickly opened the long “Linha Aérea Imperial” to Angola and Mozambique, symbolically linking mainland Portugal to its overseas territories. TAP entered the jet age in the 1960s, became Europe’s first all‑jet airline in 1967, and rebranded as TAP Air Portugal in 1979. Nationalised after the 1974 Carnation Revolution, it went through cycles of partial privatisation and renationalisation, remaining a strategic state‑controlled company due to its role in connectivity, tourism, exports, and the Portuguese diaspora, especially to Brazil, Africa, and North America. Today TAP operates an all‑Airbus fleet from its Lisbon hub, marketing itself as a bridge between Europe, Africa, and the Americas and as a key economic and symbolic asset for Portugal.